slaughteredlamb
Jan 15, 2004 @ 2:14 pm
Because I thought that was Lucy Liu. And I kind of thought the woman in the hammock was Liv Tyler, but I have no idea who the black guy in the third ad is.
LL Cool J. And it is Liv Tyler in the hammock, but I haven't seen the Lucy Liu one yet. Personally, I think the commercials are a waste. They're not interesting, don't really get the point across, and don't really use the celebrities.
Now I'm missing those E! Network commercials from a few years ago with all the celebrities doing goofy actor things in their private lives. NO WIRE HANGERS!
Edited because extended education has removed the logic to differ between "There" and "They're".
Hilary Dickulous
Jan 15, 2004 @ 2:20 pm
That is, DSL is so much faster, it will leave you a ton of time to do other stuff.
You mean Lucy Liu?
I totally read this the wrong way.
FfrauleinN
Jan 15, 2004 @ 2:24 pm
As did I.
Tornado25
Jan 15, 2004 @ 2:28 pm
Alexandria Bay, thanks. I feel so much better now. I don't know why, but I always have a hard time recognizing famous people in ads.
Now that I seen a couple of other posts (esp slaughteredlamb's), these ads irritate me even more because I don't get what the stars' have to do with it. This might seem stupid, but it's frustrating to me because I understand the point of the ad, but don't understand why they needed a star to do them.
Slightly o/t, I had one of those great moments of realization yesterday in the car, when I figured out the Wells Fargo radio ads have to vo'd by Roz from Frasier. You know, the "that's who that is!" moment. I love that.
Pittipat
Jan 15, 2004 @ 3:11 pm
Am I the only one who has witnessed the horror that is Zora whatsherface from Joe Millionaire (yeah, I watched the first one - what of it?) plugging Nutrisystem?
First of all, I don't recall her being anything close to being "fat" enough to need to go on a diet. If anything, I think she looks really gross and not as pretty as she did on Millionaire.
And I only laughed at the image of her dressed up in her high-faluting business suit, dropping her little nutrisystem lunch into her briefcase. Who the hell is she trying to kid?
Off to eat some cookie dough, dammit.
formergr
Jan 15, 2004 @ 3:14 pm
The way the commercial plays out, the doorman wouldn't know how far the museum was unless he knew exactly when the woman was releasing her end of the tape measure! I checked for walkie-talkies or any other communication device, and they aren't using any, so there's no way he could know (in this scenario)!
Right!!
FfrauleinN, this was exactly my thinking. At first I was like, "Well maybe the doorman looked at it and will tell her the length when she gets back." But then I realized that he wouldn't know when she stopped, just like you are pointing out. Ahhhh, it feels so nice to know that I'm not completely crazy :)
roosterboy
Jan 15, 2004 @ 3:20 pm
Wouldn't he know when she stopped because the tape would quit playing out? All she'd have to do is say, "When the tape stops for a few seconds, take a reading and I'll let it go."
FfrauleinN
Jan 15, 2004 @ 3:23 pm
But she didn't pause! When she got to the museum, she just let 'er rip! And if she was putting that much thought into the experiment before conducting it, she would've taken the right end, not given the poor doorman detailed instructions.
steering fish
Jan 15, 2004 @ 3:35 pm
Agreed -- tape measure woman is a fucking idiot.
trice77
Jan 15, 2004 @ 3:35 pm
FfrauleinN, I thought you were done with this commercial! :) Just kidding. Your posts are cracking me up. And I've never even seen the damn commercial.
Alexandria Bay
Jan 15, 2004 @ 3:39 pm
To me, the message of the celebrity DSL ad is that only rich people can afford it.
FfrauleinN
Jan 15, 2004 @ 3:43 pm
Hee. I'm sorry. I'm through now, I swear. I just wanted to make sure everyone understood that there was no way in hell for that ad to make sense. If you see it, you will understand the slightly irrational wrath.
Tornado25
Jan 15, 2004 @ 5:04 pm
To me, the message of the celebrity DSL ad is that only rich people can afford it.
Hee! That probably doesn't mesh too well with SBC's message, which I think ultimately, is "it's really cheap now, so buy it and love it, so you won't notice when we jack the rate by $20/mo in a year". The one with Liv Tyler I think made the most sense to me. Use your time efficiently by upgrading to DSL, more time for fun stuff. Okay, fine. But, what's Liv Tyler got to do with it? I realize I might not be making sense here--but the way I see it: If the star appears as the star, it catches my attention, but if the star is trying to put "star as an ordinary person" fact to it, I'm confused.
I believe this ad has reached the same point with me as the Hotels.com ad has with
FfrauleinN. I'll stop. Promise. Maybe.
ubi
Jan 15, 2004 @ 5:50 pm
Now that I seen a couple of other posts (esp slaughteredlamb's), these ads irritate me even more because I don't get what the stars' have to do with it. This might seem stupid, but it's frustrating to me because I understand the point of the ad, but don't understand why they needed a star to do them.
I haven't seen this ad yet, but it sure reminds me of those Sizzle 'N' Stir(?) ads from a couple years ago featuring a bunch of stars acting like a family while the one in the role of "Mom" cooks the aforementioned product.
jennifuh
Jan 15, 2004 @ 5:58 pm
I haven't seen this ad yet, but it sure reminds me of those Sizzle 'N' Stir(?) ads from a couple years ago featuring a bunch of stars acting like a family while the one in the role of "Mom" cooks the aforementioned product.
Unfortunately, the SBC ads are not even in the same league. Those were classic! SBC's are just stupid.
Tornado25
Jan 15, 2004 @ 6:02 pm
I haven't seen this ad yet, but it sure reminds me of those Sizzle 'N' Stir(?) ads from a couple years ago featuring a bunch of stars acting like a family while the one in the role of "Mom" cooks the aforementioned product.
Absolutely. Those were hilarious! All I remember was I think George Foreman and Florence Henderson were in one. I don't remember who was in the others, but they were great.
THAT, advertisers is a good use of stars in an ad. Thanks,
ubi.
VeronicaNC
Jan 15, 2004 @ 6:22 pm
I adore the TCM commercial with the 2nd graders in Ben Hur.
I also love the Chevy truck commercial with the 5 guys in the truck and the one in the middle of the backseat is singing along with, Man, I Feel Like A Woman, or whatever that song is that Shania Twain sings about short skirts. The looks the other guys are giving him and the fact that he is just so clueless, cracks me up.
Ernos
Jan 15, 2004 @ 6:35 pm
Sally Jessy Raphael, Little Richard (sneaking down the stairs so he wouldn't have to help set the table), Pat Morita, George Hamilton, and I'm pretty sure Mr. T made an appearance. Those really were cute. But you know, they might have thought that using older celebrities like that wouldn't work because younger viewers wouldn't know who they are. (Hell, the only thing I remember seeing George Hamilton in was Zorro, the Gay Blade.)
JoyWalker
Jan 15, 2004 @ 7:03 pm
I've never managed to see the TCM Ben-Hur ad -- is there anywhere on the web I could go for a look? I adore the Rocky one.
TheCustomOfLife
Jan 15, 2004 @ 7:39 pm
Sally Jessy Raphael, Little Richard (sneaking down the stairs so he wouldn't have to help set the table), Pat Morita, George Hamilton, and I'm pretty sure Mr. T made an appearance.
I loved this commercial! Sally would ask Little Richard to help Pat set the dishes, and Little Richard would slam a dish or a fork down and spit out, "ThereIhelped!" It was so great.
Poodle Hat
Jan 15, 2004 @ 8:29 pm
the only thing I remember seeing George Hamilton in was Zorro, the Gay Blade.
George Hamilton is one of those celebrities who seem to be famous for being famous. Honestly, I think the only movie I've ever seen him in was Love At First Bite. He's more famous for his tan than anything else.
I do like the new commercial he's in. For (I think) baked Ritz snacks, or something. It makes me chuckle whenever I see it.
TheCustomOfLife
Jan 15, 2004 @ 8:55 pm
George Hamilton, sadly enough, was probably most famous for That Tan. And his engagement to Lynda Johnson, daughter of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the president from '63 to '69.
cocokitty
Jan 15, 2004 @ 10:39 pm
Caught a commercial for the first time that totally made me crack up - its just a shot of a baby leaning back in his highchair with a bowl on his face. He's slurping or making mmm mmm noises and is totally covered in sauce. I think the commercial was for Prego?? Anyways, I dont care what they're selling - I LOVE it!
Puds38
Jan 15, 2004 @ 11:20 pm
Seen it. Yeah the kids cute, definitely enjoying his pasta.
naugastyle
Jan 15, 2004 @ 11:37 pm
This was the only link I could find for the TCM spots:
http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/Multime...deo/0,,,00.html. It was basically every single video clip they have on one page (not just ads). Yet I couldn't find the
Rocky one. There's also a Dirty Dozen parody I've never seen. It was basically done as Ice Capades, complete with cheering fans. Pretty good. The WMA clips are super tiny, but the RealPlayer ones blow chunks.
OK, I found a link that includes the Rocky ad:
http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/Multime...,,12280,00.html. The first one was for "videos" and had all clips listed separately. Doing a page search for "parody" was how I found the Dirty Dozen clip. But Rocky really wasn't on there. This one is for "trailers," but it's listed by the title of the movie, so you'd have to already know which movies have parody ads to click.
devajd
Jan 16, 2004 @ 12:18 am
The one with the figure skaters is awesome! I love the spinning during the battle scenes. "Jefferson..." Hee!!
JoyWalker
Jan 16, 2004 @ 12:29 am
Thank you SO much, naugastyle! That was great. (Also, I could swear that was my ex-boss trying to warn Jefferson at the end of the Dirty Dozen ad....
Now I need them to make more!
lannie
Jan 16, 2004 @ 12:34 am
Has anyone seen the ad for the Micro Touch Trimmer? It's your typical, cheesy informercial ad, except there was something towards the end that the feminist in me did not like. To me, it seemed to imply--hell, nearly come out and say--that a woman is responsible for keeping her man clean-shaven pretty much all over. Not just that, but Mom can keep her kid's neck nape tidy too! Maybe I'm reading too much into that, but it just pissed me off. For one thing, they never showed a man shaving his woman's hoo-hoo in the companion tool's (the Finishing Touch) ad.
Hoo-hoo. The more I see it, the more I laugh.
TexasTallGal
Jan 16, 2004 @ 12:47 am
Thank you,
Tornado25!
Slightly o/t, I had one of those great moments of realization yesterday in the car, when I figured out the Wells Fargo radio ads have to vo'd by Roz from Frasier. You know, the "that's who that is!" moment. I love that.
I've been trying to figure out for at least a year now whose voice that is.
phxchic
Jan 16, 2004 @ 1:00 am
Waitress? There's a hoo-hoo in my Yoo-Hoo.
Game Show Network needs to give up on the cheesy Who Wants to be a Millionaire bumper ad. "Regis is gonna give it to you all night long!"
*shudder* No. No. Just...ew.
nbwcc
Jan 16, 2004 @ 1:21 am
Has anyone seen the ad for the Micro Touch Trimmer? It's your typical, cheesy informercial ad,
lannie, the part that found personally offensive was when they zoom right up on the armpit hair... O.K. I exaggerate, I guess maybe it's not personally offensive, but I at least found it vomit inducing.
Shelwood
Jan 16, 2004 @ 1:35 am
Heh, I think everyone has their own special Micro Touch Squick Moment. While the bikini bump moment is highly unpleasant and a real contender for me, my Squick Moment is the toe hair trimming. It's not the toe hair, per se, but that the toe, um, owner has taken the (not a fave of mine) French Pedicure, put it on her not very attractive (and, until then, hairy) toes, and made the choice to let her toenails grow out. Long toenails gross me out as is. Long toenails on purpose? Blech. Long toenails on purpose on hobbit feet? Makes me long for the shot of the nose hair in the Personal Touch ad.
Poodle Hat
Jan 16, 2004 @ 1:47 am
To me, it seemed to imply--hell, nearly come out and say--that a woman is responsible for keeping her man clean-shaven pretty much all over. Not just that, but Mom can keep her kid's neck nape tidy too! Maybe I'm reading too much into that, but it just pissed me off.
I think you read too much into it. I didn't think they were saying she HAD to do her family's grooming, but lots of wives/moms do. My mom always did.
For one thing, they never showed a man shaving his woman's hoo-hoo in the companion tool's (the Finishing Touch) ad.
I should hope not. That would be a little racy, don't you think?
Vermicious Knid
Jan 16, 2004 @ 2:33 am
Loving the glittery hoo-hoos in the Pixel Challenge. So nice of Britney to come out with the perfect outfit for that.
FfrauleinN
Jan 16, 2004 @ 10:32 am
I loved this commercial! Sally would ask Little Richard to help Pat set the dishes, and Little Richard would slam a dish or a fork down and spit out, "ThereIhelped!"
Oh, that was friggin' hilarious! I wish they would show them again.
For one thing, they never showed a man shaving his woman's hoo-hoo in the companion tool's (the Finishing Touch) ad.
Okay,
that I would pay to see. As long as there was glitter involved.
"Regis is gonna give it to you all night long!"
Um ... no thank you, Game Show Network. I'll just do without, thanks.
spacedog
Jan 16, 2004 @ 10:57 am
George Hamilton, sadly enough, was probably most famous for That Tan. And his engagement to Lynda Johnson, daughter of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the president from '63 to '69.
Hee. I have a couple dozen of my dad's
MAD Magazines from the '60s, and they constantly snarked on Hamilton. One of them was "Mad Looks Inside George Hamilton's Wallet." His occupation was listed as: Part-time actor and Full-Time publicity seeker. The Usual Gang of Idiots nailed Hamilton perfectly with that one.
Jeaux35
Jan 16, 2004 @ 11:09 am
Just wanted to weigh in (no pun intended) on Zora's ad for NutriSystem. Frankly, Zora, if going on their diet is going to make me look like an anorexic refugee, I would rather be fat.
Honey, you looked fine, beautiful, gorgeous on Joe Millionaire. Who in God's name told you that you needed to lose weight? You looked so much better before. Like a normal, well-nourished American woman. This new look of skin and bones is not the least bit attractive. Put the weight back on.
And all you weight loss companies need to burn in hell. Stop making normal people feel like they need to give you hundreds of dollars to lose weight when there is nothing wrong with them in the first place.
michelec
Jan 16, 2004 @ 12:04 pm
George Hamilton is one of those celebrities who seem to be famous for being famous. Honestly, I think the only movie I've ever seen him in was Love At First Bite. He's more famous for his tan than anything else.
George Hamilton, sadly enough, was probably most famous for That Tan. And his engagement to Lynda Johnson, daughter of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the president from '63 to '69.
Yep. If it wasn’t for the tan, George Hamilton probably would have ended up being a HITG at best. I was watching
Where The Boys Are for the 863rd time last week (Shut up. It’s one of my favorite movies.), in which he was the male lead. His acting was okay, but the personality was on the bland side…I don’t know whether that was on purpose or not since he was playing an old money Ivy Leaguer. I'm thinking it wasn't.
Thanks for posting the TCM link. I had never seen "Dirty Dozen on Ice" before. And "Ben Hur" never stops being funny, especially when the kid is run over by the horses.
Eliot
Jan 16, 2004 @ 12:21 pm
Thanks for posting the TCM link. I had never seen "Dirty Dozen on Ice" before. And "Ben Hur" never stops being funny, especially when the kid is run over by the horses.
Yes, thanks so much for posting that. I've been telling all my friends about "Ben-Hur" for weeks but no one else has seen it.
And I don't know how I missed "Dirty Dozen on Ice" when it ran, but it was great!
Miss Pandora
Jan 16, 2004 @ 12:31 pm
I haven't seen this ad yet, but it sure reminds me of those Sizzle 'N' Stir(?) ads from a couple years ago featuring a bunch of stars acting like a family while the one in the role of "Mom" cooks the aforementioned product.
Kind of OT, but I read that these commercials were the inspiration for the show
The Surreal Life.
naugastyle
Jan 16, 2004 @ 12:35 pm
According to info on the TCM site, both the Ben-Hur and Dirty Dozen ads were made as a special promo shown in movie theaters (Rocky was part of the "31 Days of Oscar" campaign"). Maybe the Dirty Dozen ad just never made it to TV.
One minor moment that I love--when the kid who's whipping Ben-Hur coughs after yelling out his lines. Also, when Ben-Hur stares at the evil dude during the chariot race (I can't remember his name) it looks like he's trying for "intense" (as intense as 7-year-olds get) but he actually looks confused. As in, I'm in a cardboard chariot on stage, am I dreaming? Too cute.
ubi
Jan 16, 2004 @ 12:45 pm
George Hamilton, sadly enough, was probably most famous for That Tan.
He was reguarly mocked via this very well-tanned plastic surgeon named Hamilton George on
Nightstand. Back on topic, I think I saw him in an ad recently with him at the pool tanning himself. I don't think it was for baked Ritz crackers, however.
Sleestak Hunter
Jan 16, 2004 @ 12:51 pm
George Hamilton was in the only Old Navy commercial that didn't make me want to throw something at the screen. He's reclining in a lounger on the Sun with some babes. That's all I remember.
Whatever one might think of his actual acting skill- the guy works a fair amount in movies & TV:
IMDB link
Tornado25
Jan 16, 2004 @ 2:16 pm
I think I saw him in an ad recently with him at the pool tanning himself. I don't think it was for baked Ritz crackers, however.
Ooh, I remember that ad. I have no idea what it was for (strangely, I think it
was for Ritz crackers, for some reason) but I DO remember he totally snarked on himself for the tan. It was great!
Quag
Jan 16, 2004 @ 6:00 pm
I hate the DebtFree commercials. Not only do they show them a million frickin' times a night, but the camera is way too close to those people's faces. Ick! The camera is practically up their noses and in their mouths. I can't stand that.
DoctorNeon
Jan 16, 2004 @ 6:06 pm
They have theoretical mathematicians working on how many times I've nearly puked from seeing Ben Stiller have his face slide across some American Grizzly's sweaty chest while watching tv this month. Christ, I hope the movie tanks so I never have to see or hear about it again.
Sleestak Hunter
Jan 16, 2004 @ 7:03 pm
And I could do without having to watch Ben taking a dump, too. This is comedy? Oh, God. I sound like my father now.
Ernos
Jan 16, 2004 @ 7:08 pm
Those commercials are pretty foul, but I vaguely recall thinking the same thing about the There's Something About Mary commercials, and I ended up actually liking that movie (not a lot, but still). They really seem to just put the grossest possible stuff in commercials for comedy movies; I guess they figure the grossout crowd is the target demographic. "Look, a squeamish guy has disgusting things happen to him! Repeatedly!" "Dude, I am SO THERE!"
KimberleeJean
Jan 16, 2004 @ 7:09 pm
And all you weight loss companies need to burn in hell. Stop making normal people feel like they need to give you hundreds of dollars to lose weight when there is nothing wrong with them in the first place.
What's hilarious is the commercials that contribute to weight loss without meaning to.
Cases en pointe:
That "oink oink moo moo" commercial inspired my friend to stop eating red meat. She couldn't handle the slabs of raw flesh slapping onto the scale accompanied by the cute animal sound. Weight loss? 5 pounds in 2 weeks!
The "You are no longer the wing master" one gets my vote for disgusting. I don't want to see nasty BBQ smeared all over a dude's face in prime time. No way. Never. I hate people eating in commercials generally, but this is just gross.
Honorable mention to the already noted Ben Stiller/sweaty guy commercial. I don't have anorexia...
yet.
jw7579
Jan 16, 2004 @ 7:54 pm
George Hamilton, sadly enough, was probably most famous for That Tan.
And it's amazing that he doesn't have skin cancer yet.
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